Starting Pitchers For The Weekend (Revised (Possibly))

The Globe posted some of the pitchers for the first four games of the spring and have Saturday's starters are flip-flopped from what I posted yesterday (and what WEEI posted earlier today).

Saturday vs. Boston College, 1 PM: Stolmy Pimentel, Michael Bowden, Jason Rice

Saturday vs. Northeastern, 6 PM: Kyle Weiland, Alex Wilson, Rich Hill

Sunday at Twins, 7 PM: Josh Beckett, Clay Buchholz, Brandon Duckworth

Monday vs. Twins, 1 PM: Daisuke Matsuzaka

The Globe's post came 30 minutes after WEEI's post, so maybe that is more accurate. Who knows?

Terry Francona, on Sunday's pitchers:

It's the Mayor's Cup so we're going to stack it a little bit.

Peter Abraham reports: Adrian Gonzalez took 30 swings off a tee this morning. ... Marco Scutaro took infield practice today and every throw was strong and over the top, not the sidearm style he used last year when his shoulder was sore ... Jonathan Papelbon is suffering from flu-like symptoms.

Full Count's Kirk Minihane looks at the slash stats for two Boston outfielders:

Player A: .278 / .366 / .478 - 116 OPS+
Player B: .270 / .377 / .476 - 120 OPS+

Player A is Trot Nixon's Red Sox stats (1996, 1998-2006) and Player B is J.D. Drew (2007-2010). (Minihane has Nixon's SLG at .464, which is actually his career mark. I added the OPS+ number.)

Minihane:

In 10 seasons with the Red Sox Trot Nixon played in at least 130 games three times. In four seasons with the Red Sox J.D. Drew has played in at least 130 games three times.

This is not entirely fair. In two of Nixon's 10 seasons with Boston, he was merely a September call-up, playing in a total of only 15 games (two in 1996 and 13 in 1998). So let's say this:

Nixon: 130+ games played in 3 of 8 Red Sox seasons
Drew: 130+ games played in 3 of 4 Red Sox seasons

Back in 1980, Allan Simpson, an accountant in British Columbia, had a great idea. He wanted to quit his job and start a baseball newspaper that focused on

every facet of baseball -- the majors, minors, colleges, youth baseball, everything ... I ran the idea by everyone and they all thought I was completely nuts. Except my wife. ... Here I was, a guy with no publishing background, limited financial resources, few active contacts in baseball ... trying to launch a national baseball publication out of the garage of my house. In Canada, no less.

Thus began the publication of All-American Baseball News, later renamed Baseball America. The first year was anything but smooth, but the magazine survived -- and Simpson was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in January.